Saturday, January 9, 2016

Crossover Cover: The Lost Level

An
occultist named Aaron Pace discovers how to navigate the Labyrinth
between worlds, and begins exploring other dimensions before ending
up stranded in the Lost Level, a reality that can be journeyed to,
but never returned from, and where things are constantly arriving
from parallel realities. Pace mentions it was the Simon Necronomiconthat introduced him to occultism as a child, but he
didn’t realize it was a fake, and it was many years before he laid
eyes on the real Necronomicon.
Nyarlathotep is mentioned in Pace’s spell for opening doorways into
the Labyrinth. In one of the alternate universes he visits, Tony
Genova is President. When he meets a group of serpent men, the
Annunaki, in the Lost Level, Pace compares them to tales of the Dark
Ones, a race of lizard men he’d heard about in his studies.
Mushroom men living in a swamp are referenced. Pace is familiar with
the Void. He also knows about Globe Package Services and the Globe
Corporation, and a robot employed by a future version of the company
appears. Pace meets a cowboy, Deke, from another dimension, where a
zombie plague wiped out civilization in the Old West. Deke mentions
he was born in his world’s version of Brinkley Springs, WV. Pace
has knowledge of the Thirteen, and names Ob, Ab and Api in
particular. Pace and his allies battle a giant Clicker. Pace is
familiar with Black Lodge. The Labyrinth is a core part of Keene’s
connected fiction. The Lost Level is mentioned in Keene’s novel
Ghost Walk. The
Necronomicon and
Nyarlathotep are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Tony Genova
is from the Clickersnovels
by Keene and J. F. Gonzalez, where he is a mobster (as is his CU
counterpart, who has appeared in other stories by Keene), and is also
president in the world of Clickers vs.
Zombies. The Dark Ones are also from theClickersnovels, though the
species also exists in the CU, as Levi Stoltzfus mentions them in
“Last of the Albatwitches.” The mushroom men in the swamp may or
may not be those infected with the fungus from Keene’s Earthworm
Godsnovels. The Void is where Ob and the
Siqqusim were confined until they were released in the alternate
dimension of Keene’s The Rising.
Globe Package Services and the Globe Corporation exist across Keene’s
multiverse. Deke’s homeworld is the world of Keene’s short story
“Lost Canyon of the Damned.” The zombie virus, Hamelin’s
Revenge, is the same one that destroyed civilization in the 2000s in
the world of Keene’s Dead Seaand
Entombed. The CU
version of Brinkley Springs, WV was seen in Keene’s novel A
Gathering of Crows. The Thirteen are the main
villains of the Labyrinth cycle. The Clickers are the
crab-lobster-scorpion beasts that are the primary villains of the
Clickersnovels. Black
Lodge is a government agency that recurs throughout Keene’s
fiction.